Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) on Tuesday applauded the Virginia business community for the launch of Virginia Initiative for Growth and Opportunity in Each Region, or GO Virginia. GO Virginia is a coalition of business leaders working to promote collaboration between state and local government and the private sector in order to grow Virginia’s economy. The coalition was announced Tuesday in a press conference at Virginia’s Biotechnology Park.
"Today’s announcement is the result of nearly two years of hard work by Virginia’s most prominent and successful business leaders and the beginning of a collaborative effort to grow and strengthen Virginia’s economy," said Speaker Howell. "This coalition was necessitated by the clear acknowledgement that Virginia’s economy is struggling. We rank near the bottom of the nation for economic growth and our status as one of the nation’s best states for business is rapidly falling. More needs to be done to create good paying jobs for Virginia families, inspire entrepreneurs to build new businesses and attract the world’s best companies to the Commonwealth."

Speaker Howell continued, "Whether it is prioritizing existing economic development funding to incentivize regional collaboration or streamlining and improving our workforce development programs, I am confident that the General Assembly will be able to work with this coalition of business leaders to develop ideas that can be turned into actionable policies in order to power a brighter future for Virginia."

"Finally, I want to thank Dubby Wynne, Tom Farrell, Heywood Fralin, Wick Moorman, and other business leaders from around the state who put their time and energy in to building this coalition,” Howell concluded. “I look forward to making GO Virginia a success."